5 Stupid Questions With Brewery Vivant Founder Jason Spaulding

American Craft Beer was recently invited to Grand Rapids to celebrate its 10 year anniversary as “Beer City” and cover its impressive craft beer scene. And we spent an early afternoon drinking beer with Jason Spaulding, who founded Brewery Vivant along with his wife Kris in 2010.

So maybe it was because we all started drinking early, that he agreed to do a “5 Stupid Questions” with us, but we were psyched to spend some time with Jason because he’s a bit of a brewing legend in the in the Midwest and a super-interesting guy.

And as much as we tried to limit things to our standard five question format there was too much we wanted to get into, so welcome to a rare “5 Stupid Questions” where we neglected to count…

ACB: Tell us a little about yourself. Are you from Michigan originally? How did you get into brewing professionally and why did you choose Grand Rapids to be home to Brewery Vivant?

I am from Michigan. I tried to escape once but I never got very far.  I grew up on the east side them moved to the west side of Michigan in college.  Once I got over here I started appreciating the State more.  Beautiful beaches, hiking, mountain bike trials, etc.  I had thought about putting my brewery in other States or other cities when it was just a plan on paper but nothing felt quite right. When you start a business, it helps to have some connection to the community, relationships with other business people, bankers, and friends to help when things go sideways. I had all of that here.

When you are from a place, it always sounds fun to live somewhere else. In the end my wife and I figured if we did what we wanted with this brewery, maybe we could help make Grand Rapids be the kind of place we wanted to live. I think it worked.

ACB: Brewery Vivant is one of Grand Rapids best known breweries (We’d argue its right there with Founders). But unlike when you started the city is now home to more than forty independent brewers. How would you characterize Grand Rapid’s current brewing scene?

Grand Rapids has a pretty tight brewery scene. All of us in the industry know each other and help each other out. When we started in 2010, our keg washer was delayed. My friends at Founders helped us out and washed our kegs for us a few times. I remember that and try to pass that kindness along when I can. If another brewer needs help or is missing an ingredient at a crucial moment in the process, we always lend a hand if we are able.

The breweries here are all run by colorful personalities.  I love seeing everyone’s take on atmosphere, the beers they make, how they operate, etc.  It makes it a fun energetic place to be.

ACB: Your passion for brewing Belgium-Style ales is defining. When we think about American breweries doing cool things today with Belgian and French styles only Brewery Vivant, New Belgium, The Lost Abbey and Allagash readily come to mind. What led you to champion these unique European styles?

It was couple things. To my home brewer self, there was always a bit of mystery behind Belgian beers.  Beer yeast that have been cultivated over 100s of years made the whole process very intriguing and it felt like there was always something you could not quite put your finger on.  There always something more to learn.  Beers like that seemed the pinnacle of the art of beer to me.

Before Brewery Vivant found its name or had a definite plan for its beer, I had been leaning into the idea of Belgian styles. Then a trip to the country breweries in southern Belgium and northern France sort of cemented it for us.  We came back with a love for these rustic Belgian-esque beers that were unfiltered and filled with personality of the communities we found them in.

The people in one village would talk about how the beer here was the best. Then 20 minutes away we would visit another village with their own brewery.  They had never heard of the beer we were talking about because they drank the beer from their town!  It was awesome and amazing.  We wanted to do that for our brewery. Become a destination spot that was a must stop should you visit our city.

ACB: Do you worry that Belgium-style ales are becoming more niche at a time when most craft breweries live and die by their IPAs?

It is a strange time to be focused on a niche like this.  The world of beer has changed and morphed so quickly over the last ten years that we have had to adapt as well.  For Vivant we “zoomed out” on our focus which now encompasses any beer with a European tradition.  This lets us explore Czech style lagers, pilsners, and yes IPA.

Even with that though the world of IPAs grew even larger. It is a whole category within itself. We struggled with wanting to participate in the wave of hazy IPA evolution and feeling that we needed to stay true to the brand that we worked so hard to build.

In 2019 we opened an alternate brewery brand housed in a building across town called Broad Leaf Brewery + Spirits. Through that brand we dove head first into all things IPA.   Here we experiment with all the amazing cutting edge hops, ingredients, yeast, and evolving brewing methods.

These Broad Leaf beers then show up as “guest beers” at our Vivant taproom.  This way we keep our European inspired brand intact, and people that come for IPAs have all they can dream of.  A happy win-win. Plus we can keep brewing our specialty Saisons and offer up single barrel sour beer projects to our core fans that know and expect that from us when they come to the taproom.

ACB: Brewery Vivant is one of the most visually striking breweries we have ever visited. The building itself is amazing. What can you tell us about it?

Our building was the largest funeral home in Grand Rapids in the 1900s.  It has an impressive cathedral ceiling, Belgian archways and just feels super European. When we found it, it was pretty much perfect for what our plan had become. We fought a lot of battles to be able to locate here.  In the end though, we have created a place that is part of the fabric of the city.

The biggest compliment we get is when a local has friends or family from out of town and they want to show of Grand Rapids… and they choose Vivant to take them to. You can see when people have not been here before because when they walk in they stop in the vestibule and just take it all in for a moment.

ACB: Brewery Vivant was the first brewery in the world become LEED certified. Conservation and sustainability are a big part of the brewery’s ethos. How did this all come about?

Vivant is a mash up of passions from Kris and I.  She is really the driving force behind our sustainability efforts. We wrote our business plan together and during that process we really challenged ourselves to question every aspect of our business, how we would run it, and what it would stand for.

We wanted to create the type of business that we thought should exist in the world.  That is a big part of our culture.  It shows up in all the things we do from offering health benefits, staff side benefits,  local spend goals, and our drive for community service.  The LEED certification fits into that.  It is a great honor for us to be the first brewery to achieve it and our plaque proudly hangs on our wall.

However the culture of what that stands for is ongoing.  We always try to improve and be better. We also are a certified “B” Corp which takes that same ethos but applies it to the way we structure our business vs the physical structure.  Their motto fits us pretty well. We see our “business as a force for good.”

ACB: There’s so many great breweries doing interesting things in Grand Rapids…Can you share some of your favorites without getting into trouble?

Nope.

…Just kidding.  I love a lot of things going on here in the beer world.

My friends at City Built are killing it with some really passionate beers pushing some extremes in hops, fruit, & adjuncts.  Mitten Brewery has this amazing baseball theme located in a historic Fire House.  They just erected an old-timey score board they acquired from a nearby ballpark.  If you time it right, you can sit out back and try a Carmel corn-peanut beer that “takes you out to the ball park”.  Arvon is in it with their haze game and a cool little tap room with a devoted following that still stand in line for beer releases even in the winter.

I have a friend I worked with 20 years ago who has a brewery called Greyline. They make some of the most phenomenal beers in the city and are underrated in my opinion. I always get inspired and learn something when I go over there.

Speciation right around the corner from us and is making world class sour & wild fermented beers.  They have a cool set back pub that is like a treasure when you find it. Then there is a German beer hall on the Westside that just opened called Kusterer Brauhaus where you can get a pretzel as big as your head and wash it down with a classic Wheat beer.

I am sure I will get in trouble because I left out so many others, but that is just off the top of my head.  We have a deep culture and appreciation for beer here that goes pretty deep.

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